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Nine Variations on a Chopin Prelude, BV213a

1922; published in Book 8 of the Klavierübung, second edition, 1925; dedicated to Gino Tagliapietra; shortened version of the 1884 Variations and Fugue in free form on Chopin's C minor Prelude, Op 22 BV213; after the Prelude in C minor, Op 28 No 20

Introduction

The Nine Variations on a Chopin Prelude resulted from a substantial revision of a large set of Variations and a Fugue on the celebrated Prelude in C minor (Op 28 No 20), which Busoni wrote in 1884 at the age of eighteen. In 1922 he added an introductory fugato and reduced the number of variations from eighteen to ten for inclusion in the first edition of the Klavierübung (1922), and then reduced it further to nine (by dropping the ‘Fantasia’) for the second edition (1925). Its final pages consist of a ‘Scherzo finale’ in tarantella style with an ‘Hommage à Chopin’ in waltz rhythm as its middle section.

Recordings

Marc-André Hamelin is indisputably the king of Busoni pianists. This generously priced triple album offers most of Busoni’s mature works and the widest selection of pieces from the Klavierübung so far recorded, many of them for the first time.» More

2010 sees the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, and among the many celebratory recordings, this disc will stand out as an historic record of the composer’s extraordinary influence and legacy. A fascinating selection of hommages are represented ...» More

Details

Two years before his death in 1924, Ferruccio Busoni admitted that ‘Chopin has attracted and repelled me all my life; and I have heard his music too often—prostituted, profaned, vulgarized …’. There are two versions of the Variations inspired by the funereal C minor Prelude Op 28 No 20, a miniature that would also inspire Rachmaninov to compose his Variations on a theme of Chopin. Busoni’s Variations and Fugue in free form on Chopin’s C minor Prelude (Op 22/BV213), dedicated to Carl Reinecke, was composed in 1884 and published the following year by Breitkopf und Härtel. It consists of eighteen variations, a four-voice fugue and extended coda à la Liszt. Busoni was barely eighteen when he wrote it, a calling card if ever there was one of sophisticated pianism and contrapuntal ingenuity. Later in life he came to view the work as reckless and excessive. In 1922 he produced a revised and compressed version for inclusion in his Klavierübung, the Ten Variations on a Prelude of Chopin in C minor (BV213a), dedicated to Busoni’s erstwhile pupil Gino Tagliapietra. A sostenuto re-harmonized version of part of the famous theme serves as an introduction to a complete statement of Chopin’s original. The first variation builds over a left-hand step-wise accompaniment leading seamlessly into a scherzando treatment and a third marked en carillon. After further virtuoso demands leading to a fugal scherzo finale, the tempo changes for a waltz variation (actually marked ‘Hommage à Chopin’) before returning to the tempo of the scherzo.